#002: WHAT WOULD i HAVE BEEN?

Relatives taunt me saying: "Had your father and grandfather not sold the ancestral lands and house in your native village, you would have been working as a 'paid-cowherd, (persons who take buffaloes and cows to the nearby hills for grazing and bring them back in the evening at dusk)' . You are fortunate that they sold out everything. {Owing to fragmentation of land among sons and grandsons, I would have got less than one acre (4,840 sq. yards). Hence invariably for sustenance I would have been forced to work as an agricultural laborer or a cattle-grazer.}

It made you shift to the town and study hard. Instead of working as a bank officer or a lawyer you would have ended up searching for dung. You would not have written blogs or translated Bhagavad Gita and Bhartruhari."

My usual reply: "Instead of playing the Tyagaraja's tunes on the flute, I might have learnt folk tunes in the hills. The buffalos and cows would have heard them. I might have developed my expertise in making buffalo-dung cakes. Tyagaraja got his satisfaction by praising the glories of Rama. I might have got my satisfaction by talking to the buffalos and the cows. I might have lived with the animals, loved them and be loved by them. If you have seen the Bhakta Tukaram film, you will know this. If Tukaram praises and sings the God Vitt`hala, his wife makes buffalo dung cakes with equal gusto. Does she have a bliss and ecstasy of a lesser degree?

Lives have chains of events. Every link would have its consequences on the subsequent link. For example, an unemployed youth who is on a journey to the City for a job interview may be stopped by a strike and rasta roko (road-blockade). He may reach the interview spot ten minutes late and in the process lose his opportunity of getting employed in that particular batch. Later, the Govt. may stop recruitment for many years and he may cross his maximum age eligibility limit by the time of the next batch of recruitment. He may live a lowly paid life for several years. Another person who fails his B.A. three times, and during the last year of his age-eligibility-limit may be accidentally picked up by a would-be father-in-law who arranges and bestows a job and wife for him. Learning to collect bribes, in a few years he may move in a car to a luxury home. Some philosophers may call this "Karma" (Fruits of past birth). Mahabharata may call this "Daiva" (fate).

I do not support "determinism or fatalism (Belief that everything is predetermined). At the same time we have to realise that we are influenced by an environment on which we may not have any control. Our duty is to do our best in the given set of environment. What is predetermined? Growth of pubal hair in teens, Development of male or female reproductive organs, sexual desires, gray hair, gradual degeneration of sexual urges, and ultimate death. These are common for humanity. No exceptions are permitted.

Hence, these if's and but's have little value. If we are able to live with satisfaction in any environment, we can live happily. Buffalo-gatherer or Fund-gatherer. Calf-counter or Cash-counter. Blog-writer or Buggyvalah."